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After a couple of average holiday park campsites, we decide to hit the DOC (Department of Conservation) campsites a little harder. We find a lovely little site by a river in a secluded valley called Dickey Flats. The place is idyllic and a great base for walking down the gorge to Karangahake gold mining town. The signboard suggested torches and before long, we were in dark wet and narrow tunnels cutting through the gorge, much to Jo’s displeasure. Even the glow worms hanging from the ceiling didn’t cheer her up.

As far as spectacles, the Salinas Grandes comes pretty close to Iguazu, but is almost completely free of tourists. This may have something to do with the fact that it is over 4000m (at 13,000 feet), or that it is pretty remote, either way, having the place nearly to yourself is very cool.

Inspired by our garnet collecting, we had heard that Kozakov Hill was the place for semi-precious stones. A trip was planned that took in the streams where semi-precious stones can be found, together with a hike to the tallest lookout tower in the area. This linked in with a return leg to the bikes (that had been dropped off in another valley) before a return to the van.

We thought a little educational trip down the mine may entail something along the lines of “pay the money, walk in, see a nice cavern, hear a bit about the history, walk out, gift shop, sorted”. Nothing could be further from the truth apart from “pay the money” and the gift shop.

As we paid, we were asked to assemble in a genuine 1960’s communist prefab, then given full overalls, miners hats and torches and wellies.